In 1853, the Reverend Henry Ward Beecher purchased Blossom Hill located in the Berkshire Mountains just outside of Lenox, Massachusetts, where the Cranwell Mansion now stands. He loved the views from the top of the hillside and it is from this vantage point that he proclaimed, “From here I can see the very hills of Heaven”. He was active in the women’s suffrage and the anti-slavery movements and had presidential ambitions, which were ended by a scandalous affair, and so, it was left for his sister Harriet Beecher Stowe to claim fame through her anti-slavery novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin. General John Rathbone purchased the 380 acre property from Beecher in 1869 and constructed a new home called Wyndhurst, enormous by any standards of the day and ironically referred to as a “cottage.” At the same time, on the backside of the hill, United States Naval Captain John Barnes, Flag Officer of the North Atlantic Fleet during the Civil War, erected Coldbrooke, now known as Beecher’s Cottage and part of the Cranwell property. John Sloane, a relative of the Vanderbilts and co-owner of the famous furniture firm, W & J Sloane, became the next owner of the property when he built his “cottage” in 1894. After tearing down Rathbone’s Wyndhurst and Beecher’s farmhouse, Sloane constructed another Wyndhurst, which rivaled the enormity and elegance of the first.He also commissioned Frederick Law Olmsted, the landscape architect who created New York’s Central Park and the Boston area’s Emerald Necklace, to design the grounds. It is this new Wyndhurst that stands on the hill today. The property was briefly run as the Berkshire Hunt and Country Club until purchased by Edward Cranwell in 1930 who deeded the estate to the Society of Jesus of New England in 1939, to be turned into a private school for boys. After prospering for many years, the school slipped into decline, closing its doors in 1975. Today Cranwell, with much of its original grandeur restored, is a premier four-season resort and was the site of a two day iRobot management retreat which I am attending.

Maya turns the corner on a defender as her coach looks on. She played nearly the entire match at center midfield and is really starting to look comfortable in the new position. Her vision of the field, ball control and strategic distribution are excellent, characteristics she shares with her older brothers. Her team shut out Wayland by a score of 3-0 and Maya had a very nice give-and-go assist to her close friend Sarinnagh who produced all three goals for Concord.

I am still limping but am well on the road to recovery from my torn calf muscle. I am feeling very confident I will be fully healed before leaving for Nepal on Thanksgiving Day but I have little hope of playing any more soccer this season. My day started with a 6:30 AM breakfast interview in Chelmsford with an employment candidate and ended at 9 PM at the Concord Wheelhouse where I participated as a judge in the OARS annual photography contest. The organization’s mission is to protect, preserve, and enhance the natural and recreational features of the Assabet, Sudbury, and Concord rivers, their tributaries, and watersheds.

At any other company, it would be considered unusual to encounter an employee standing on his desk typing on a laptop situated atop a bookshelf while being stared at by a creepy looking doll head. At iRobot few employees would even pause for a second look as this activity falls on the normal end of the weirdness spectrum. This particular engineer is one of our creative geniuses. If he wants to type while standing on his desk we ask if he would like us to fetch him a ladder.

Miss Maya and Jeanine went on a rare shopping spree this afternoon. I am pleased that neither is obsessed with buying clothes, shoes, and handbags to the extent that seems prevalent in today’s society. That said, Maya has grown into a young woman and was overdue for a wardrobe update. She is pictured here modeling one of her new fall outfits. I think she looks great even if she refused to let me photograph her face.

My soccer season came to an abrupt end this morning when my right calf muscle gave out again, this time with that distinct popping sound that indicates a severe tear. We were leading by a margin of 2-0 at the start of the second half when it happened. I watched from the opposite sideline as we went on to win 3-1, unable to walk to the other side of the field where my team was standing. After the game, my teammates retrieved my car and carried me to it. I spent the rest of the day icing the injury and sulking before I had to leave for a flight to Tampa, Florida for a business meeting. I borrowed one of Nicolai’s forearm crutches, without which I could not take more than a few steps. I have a new appreciation for just how tough Nico’s life is both physically and emotionally. At the airport a vendor was handing out free samples of ice cream to all that passed by. When I approached he dropped his eyes and turned away. On the flip side, many people went out of their way to accommodate my obvious challenge including a colleague I was travelling with who was kind enough to locate a wheelchair and push me in it. We joined our boss for a very nice dinner in the bar of our Clearwater hotel. The pain in my calf kept me up most of the night.

Jeanine and I got an early start on a mini excursion to western Massachusetts to enjoy a marvelous fall day. Grey skies gave way to a brief interlude of sunshine as we arrived at the French King Bridge. a three-span “cantilever arch” style bridge crossing the Connecticut River.

We descended to the eastern base of the bridge and across Millers River where we began a short hike (me with a 30 pound pack, in training for Nepal). After following a road to the top of a high ridge we decided to take a private trail that we suspected would take us down to the Connecticut River where we planned to follow the water back to our car. Discovering no such trail and somewhat unsure we could retrace our steps we were fortunate to encounter a couple living at the water’s edge. They informed us that there was no road access and offered to ferry us up river on their pontoon boat, an invitation we were happy to accept.

We continued westward to the town of Shelburne Falls where we paused for lunch and a stroll across the famous Bridge of Flowers.

We returned by late afternoon to pick up Maya who had spent the night in southern Vermont with her Coming of Age group and then went on a movie date to see Captain Phillips.

Most Concord residents have driven past this building thousands of times and probably never really stopped to admire its beauty. It is the Old Concord Reformatory Building located immediately adjacent to the Massachusetts Correctional Institute, a medium-level security prison located on state Route 2 just off the main rotary. Its 1,350 inmates once included Malcolm X and it was visited in 1988 by Mother Theresa. As far as I have been able to ascertain, no one has ever escaped from the facility, the oldest men’s prison in the state.

Members of iRobot’s Defense and Security Business Unit sampled a dozen different chili recipes to determine the best overall, hottest, best flavor, and most original. Not a fan of foods which cause pain, I decided to watch and wait before selecting a few of the milder chilies to sample. The noon meal included cornbread, salads, desserts, and all the fixings and made for a very nice interlude to an otherwise hectic day. I used soccer practice this evening as justification for more than one visit to the dessert table but discovered that poor fuel makes for poor athletic performance.

My excitement over having found a sub 2 pound pair of trekking boots quickly dissipated this evening during a brief 30-minute training hike. I was born with flat feet and they do not respond well to any footwear which attempts to enforce an arch of any kind. Even though these new boots feel as comfortable as a well-worn pair of lambskin slippers, the muscles in my feet were in agony after just the first mile. I suspect that if I wear them for several days my feet will eventually adapt but I cannot take that risk so I am back to square one in my search for ultralight boots. Foot pain aside, I did enjoy some nice fall scenes on my walk.

Nothing has a greater impact on your comfort when trekking over great distances than the right pair of boots. After much searching and experimentation, I believe I have found the set that will carry me over the 150 mile Nepal trek I am planning for December. Pictured on the right are my Lowa Renegade’s. These are my go to boots and I love everything about them. The problem is that they are rather heavy at 2.8 pounds/pair. It is estimated that every pound of boot weight is the equivalent of five pounds of pack weight. On my trek I will take roughly 300,000 steps so think me not crazy as I look to shave every gram off my boot weight. In the foreground are a pair of Solomon Synapse which I purchased this evening and are likely going to be the boot I take to Nepal. They weigh a scant 1.9 pounds and are both waterproof and insulated. I don’t like the way they look but a few coats of mud should tone them down a bit. The remainder of the boots do not measure up for one reason or another. One pair will be returned, another I have gifted to Kyle, who shares my foot size, and the last will be relegated to yard work duty. For the next several weeks I will live in my new boots to ensure that they are broken in and fit for purpose.

Despite her fine play, primarily at center mid, Maya’s high school soccer team suffered their first loss today to Acton Boxborough by a margin of 0-1. The game was very close and the difference, in my estimation, came down to bench strength and finishing. AB had 12 subs to Concord’s 2 and by the end of the match, we did not have the legs to score an equalizer despite several excellent opportunities. I believe a second encounter with this team will produce a very different outcome. Maya has really developed a strong sense of the mid field position and I think it is a very good fit for her skills and playing style.

Another beautiful fall day dominated by rain. My soccer team faced Belmont this morning in what proved to be a very even match, resulting in a 1-1 tie. Normally, I tend to play better in foul weather, perhaps because it adds a certain amount of unpredictability to the game and I am quick to capitalize on small mistakes of the defense. Although I played well today, I was not able to capitalize on either of two scoring opportunities that I had. The first was on a fairly spectacular diving header in the first five minutes off a long cross which missed the net by a matter of inches. It is the kind of attempt that no one in my league is expected to make. Had I been a little quicker it would have been one for the history books. With minutes remaining in the game, my second opportunity was another header. I was unmarked in front of the net and received a perfect cross. I miss timed my jump and sent the ball over the cross bar on what for me should have been an easy put away. It was a long drive home replaying that attempt in my mind knowing I could have won the game with a more focused effort.

Nicolai left for Vancouver this morning where he will spend a few months working as an intern for SideStix, the manufacturer of his crutches. It is a fantastic learning opportunity in which he will participate in all aspects of the business from manufacturing and assembly to customer service and marketing. He will live in a one room cabin overlooking the Strait of Georgia on the Sunshine Coast just outside a little town called Roberts Creek. His departure was complicated by the fact that his ticket was originally booked for Friday which he only realized when the owners of SideStix, who had graciously offered to pick him up at the airport, called from Vancouver wondering where he was. Fortunately, Nico was able to explain the situation to the gate agent who was nice enough to re-book him on today’s flight without a penalty fee. The 5:30AM airport run served double duty as my brother Mark, having completed his business in Fitchburg, was headed back to Minneapolis on an early flight. With Jeanine in Vermont and Maya insistent on completing her homework, I spent much of the rest of the day hiking and photographing the fall foliage. I completed a 6 mile hike with my full Nepal pack weight (30 pounds) and had a chance to test out a new set of trekking poles. Despite the overcast skies, great fall scenes were in abundance and I returned home with hundreds of wonderful photos.

Maya’s soccer team is undefeated on the season and has yet to give up a single goal. Today they faced a very tough opponent in Westford High School which gave them a run for their money. Maya played the full game, much of it at center midfield, where she did an excellent job of ball distribution, a key responsibility of the position. The girls played hard and emerged with a 2-1 victory. I took very few photographs as much of the match was played in the rain. On the drive home I paused for a few photographs. Fall color this year is spectacular, the best I can remember in some time. Now if I could only get one sunny day before the show is over, I would be a happy man. My brother Mark arrived last night and spent the day in Fitchburg attending to a rental property that he owns there. When he returned we enjoyed a fine lamb stew that Jeanine left for us followed by an excursion to Bedford Farms for ice cream. Jeanine left early this morning for Burlington, Vermont to visit her sister Susan. There they will be celebrating the 70th birthday of close family friend Jean Cass.